STOCKTON - As expected, several proposed revisions to the city's charter will be put to a vote of the community in the November election.

But the process of revising the document that serves as the city's constitution is only beginning. In two years, voters may be asked to consider making a change to the method by which the City Council is elected.

Tuesday night, though, was focused almost entirely on this year's election. The council voted 5-1 to follow the recommendation of the city's staff and package a group of proposed revisions as a single item on the November ballot. Paul Canepa voted no, and Mayor Anthony Silva was absent because he is ill.

November's proposals are only the first phase in a three-step revision process. The next phase will include a debate over whether to give voters the chance to change the unusual and decades-old electoral process that forces Stockton council candidates to initially win election in their district, then run in a citywide race.

"That should not be on our books," Bobby Bivens, head of the local chapter of the NAACP, told the council Tuesday. "Stockton needs to be free of a document, of a law, that causes inequity." Critics such as Bivens argue that citywide voting deprives members of underserved communities the opportunity to elect their own representatives, and makes the cost of running a campaign too steep.

Vigorous arguments from both sides of the issue seem a certainty starting in 2015. But a proposal to ditch citywide voting, if it occurs at all, will not come before voters until 2016. By state law, charter changes can only go before voters in general elections.

The council did opt Tuesday to give voters the chance this fall to tidy up a variety of outdated provisions in the charter, including a requirement that applicants for city jobs provide their height and weight.

But voters this fall also will have to decide on some weightier charter proposals:

» Should a provision requiring the mayor be paid at least as much as the chairman of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors be removed?

» Should a provision be removed that deals with the selection of top officers in the Stockton Fire Department?

» Should a provision that governs the city manager's spending authority be removed?

The council decided Tuesday that all the items should be packaged in one ballot item in November, at a cost to the city of $75,000. Members of a commission reviewing the charter wanted the latter two items as separate measures on the ballot. That would have cost the city $225,000.

"I want the council to reflect on the nature of the commission, the diversity of the commission, and I would like the council to reflect on the recommendations we've made," said one of the members, Marcie Bayne.

But combining the proposed changes into one ballot item prevailed.

"We are not out of bankruptcy," Councilman Elbert Holman said. "We have some issues that still aren't resolved. I feel more comfortable being as frugal as we can."

Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/ phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.